


L-U-...?

by Fandom_Soda



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol implied, Angst, Balance Spoilers, Drinking, Fighting, Gen, I guess if i missed anything let me know, I honestly don't know what to tag this??, Swearing, Taako Remembers AU, Taz spoilers, cursing, just casual drinking, shouting, taz balance spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25276303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Soda/pseuds/Fandom_Soda
Summary: One thing leads to another, And one of the remaining five birds leaves the nest to look for the missing two.-----The letters Taako's umbrella has carved set boy detective Angus Mcdonald's mystery senses going, but this mystery may just be just too big for the boy detective alone. Taako decides to confront Madame Director about it. Just what is about these letters that causes Taako's heart to ache for something just out of reach?Maybe in the depths of that office, He will find the answer...Or maybe he'll discover something long forgotten...
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	L-U-...?

**Author's Note:**

> Just a fun little writing project while I work on my Stardew AU, Which I'm currently having a massive writer's block for. My priority is writing that one, But if I end up with more writers block I'll be coming back to this to hopefully work through it. 
> 
> Depending on that, this may or may not be a multichapter thing. I have plans for it to be multichapter, but we'll see how the wind blows.
> 
> One quick last thing, This was written over several months, on and off. I tried to fix all the inaccuracies, but some may have slipped under the radar. If any are found, do not hesitate to let me know.

A small hand knocked on the door to Taako’s room one night. The wizardly elf rolled over, shoving a pillow over his head. He attempted to ignore it for a few minutes until it began to grow louder and louder. Giving in, Taako growled in frustration and stormed over to the door, swinging it open. On the other side stood Angus Macdonald, hair disheveled and his eyes weary with no sleep. He’s holding a messy notepad, filled with scribbles and notes.

“Sorry sir, for waking you this late at night.” He yawns, rubbing an eye. 

Taako glares at the smaller boy, a grimace spreading to his face. 

“Agnes… how wonderful.” He grumbles. “What do you want?”

“Well, you know those letters on the wall that your magic umbrella carved a few days ago?” 

Taako closed his eyes in thought, humming a bit. 

“Mmm.. Nope.” 

Angus flipped his notebook around, showing his messy scribblings and thoughts. In the middle circled a few times are the letters L-U-P. 

“These ones, sir.” 

Taako frowned at the letters, a haze growing at the edges of his mind. He saw the letters but when put together he couldn’t comprehend what they were. A word perhaps? It seems so familiar though...

“What about them?” The wizard asked.

“Well, I just can’t connect them. These form a word but it just won’t make sense. You feel it too don’t you sir?” 

Taako sighed, he was too tired right now to deal with this shit. But Angus kept looking at him expectantly, with a very worried expression. 

“Maybe? It’s kind of fuzzy y’know?” 

Angus flung his hands up in exclamation. “Exactly!! It feels so familiar too, I just… can’t put my finger on it.” 

“M-hm.” The elf turned Angus around and began to push him through the common room. 

“So I thought it would be in our favor to go consult the director about it.” 

“Interesting~.” Taako pushed Angus out the door. 

“I wanted to ask, Sir, if you could talk to the director about it tomorrow. I’ve got a lot of work to do and-” 

“Sounds great Agnes, I’ll consider it m’kay? Now go get some sleep, keep up the good work and all that.” Taako cut Angus off and closed the door. 

“Oh… Okay sir! Have a great night!” Angus’ muffled voice came through the door. 

The next morning Taako met his two companions in the common room. The elf flopped down onto the couch as the other two came lumbering in. They all muttered their morning greets before Taako spoke up. 

“So. Which one of you chucklefucks decided to let Agnes in last night?” 

Magnus looked up at Taako. “Agne- Oh Angus. Yeah, I did.” 

Taako pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, but… Why?”

“Wait, Angus visited last night?” Merle spoke up.

“Yeah he did. He was just standing outside in the cold, you know how he looks at me with those eyes. I couldn’t just let him stand out there.” Magnus responded.

“Okay but consider that you could have and should have.” Merle crossed his arms

Magnus frowns. “Yeah but Merle…”

As the two bicker, Taako continues to lie on the couch. He sighs once out of annoyance and gets up, grabbing his umbrella from the floor. 

"I gotta go talk to Lucretia now, thanks to SOME-one, See ya." He waved a hand and entered his room to get dressed.

Within a few hours, Taako arrived at the door to the director's room. He contemplated turning back and lying to Angus, but as much as he hated to admit it in this situation, He was an elf of his word. 

With a loud groan, he knocked on the door and was almost immediately greeted by the director's gruff guards. They stare at the elf with a questioning look. 

Taako took a deep breath and smiled. “Hi, Is the director in? I need to talk with her.” 

One of the guards pointed into the office in the back. "Great! May I see her now?” 

The guards looked to each other before shrugging and one left to go knock on the office door. 

"What is it?" Lucretia’s familiar voice came from inside the room. 

"Reclaimer Taaco's here to see you." The guard said. 

There was silence for a moment, then the door opened and Lucretia stood there in the doorway. 

"Taako, what's up? Is there something I can help you with?" She looked to the elf. 

"Yeah, listen, can we talk where there ain't any others?” Taako leaned in, lowering his voice. “I'm not comfortable with these two listening. It's kinda hush-hush, You get me?" 

The two guards seemed to deflate a little at Taako's slightly harsh words. 

"Oh... okay.... Er, we can talk in my office, If it's that important." Lucretia responded. 

“Fantastic!”

Taako walked past Lucretia and she closed her door quietly, soon taking her place behind her desk. An uncomfortable silence spread through the room, Lucretia finally breaking it with a cough. 

“So Taako… What do you need to talk about?” She folded her hands under her chin, looking up at Taako with a curious glint in her eye. 

Taako continued his silence for a moment longer. “L-U-P… Do you know what… or who that could be?” 

Lucretia froze, her eyes widened. Fear and sadness cast onto her face suddenly, she quickly composed herself and narrowed her eyes at Taako. 

“Where did you hear of h-that?” 

'So you do know something... ' Taako thought, crossing his arms. He returned Lucretia’s look with his own unwavering one. 

“It doesn’t matter where I heard of it, alright?” 

“Uh, yeah I think it matters a great deal.” Lucretia got up from her seat, forcing her hands down onto the desk, glaring fearful, worried, daggers at Taako. She eventually sighed and sat back down, seeing Taako not budge. 

“Listen. Those letters… that word... You shouldn’t pursue it any further. It's... dangerous.”

Taako frowned. ‘So. it is a word.’ This… certainly wasn’t what Taako expected to get. He stood up from the desk and began to leave the room. He stopped with a hand on the doorknob. 

“That word has a haze around it, Almost as if it was eaten by the Voidfish, you know.” He turned his head to look at Lucretia. “I hope you aren’t keeping anything else from us.” 

With a soft click, the door swung open and Taako was gone. 

That night, the three reclaimers met back again in the communal space they shared, laughing and sharing jokes… Everyone except Taako. He was solemn, silent. This worried his two companions. Merle got up and moved closer to Taako, nudging him with his elbow. 

“Hey, you okay buddy? You didn’t laugh at all at Magnus’ story.” Merle asked. 

The elf swallowed. What should he do? If he says what’s going on then they’d get involved, and what if this led to them getting kicked out of the BoB? They could be killed, all three of them, worst-case scenario. Maybe it’ll find it’s way back to Angus and then-

No. They don’t have anything to do with this. Don’t get them involved more than they have. 

Taako took a deep breath and put on a fake smile. “Yeah totally, my dude. It just... the story wasn’t that funny If I’m gonna be perfectly honest. You call that a goof? Now. Let Taako tell you a real goof.” 

The clock quietly tolled 2 am. Taako got out his own bed as softly as he could. He had to get to the bottom of this, tonight. Lucretia had to have a good reason for reacting the way she did, but… She was keeping something more, something only she knew. The wizard quickly threw on some clothes and grabbed his bag and umbrella. Tonight he was going to get into the office. 

He slid by the guards patrolling the hallways nearby with relative ease, not much some muscle could do against magic anyways. He grabbed the knob to the office and turned it. 

Locked.

He scoffed. 

“Really now.” He muttered, casting knock on the door. 

It clicked in response and the elf slowly opened it up. He glanced around the office, Lucretia was nowhere in sight. He ruffled through the desks for a bit. Legal info, personnel files, business reports blah blah blah. Nothing close to what he was looking for. He growled in frustration, leaning back onto the desk. He looked up at the portrait behind the desk. There wasn’t anything special except he felt that familiar fuzzy feeling in the back of his head. It was barely noticeable, but it was there. Why? But what if… 

Taako picked up his staff, casting detect magic. Nothing lights up… except for the portrait behind her desk. The elf’s eyes open in realization, The portrait flashed before the last time he did this too. He climbed up onto the desk and felt around the portrait, managing to get it to swing open. 

“Bingo.” Taako softly muttered, staring down the dark corridor that laid before him.

There’s no going back now. Taako took a deep breath and stepped through the portrait, silently closing it behind him. As he wandered the long passageway, he couldn’t help but wonder why Lucretia would keep something like this here. 

He passed through an empty room and an illusory hallway, destroying an alarm quickly as it went off. Taako cursed under his breath and rushed on, coming to a large vault door. Except, this vault is locked with a simple keypad. 

“Damn Lucretia, you really wanna keep this secret under wraps.” Taako joked, eyeing the keypad. The elf fell silent, wracking his brain for solutions. He scoffed under his breath and placed a hand on the handle of the vault. 

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if-” As Taako pulled down, the vault slowly clicked open. 

He couldn’t believe his own eyes. This… wasn’t right, was it? It was as if someone wanted this to happen...

“Lucretia… leaving your secret vaults unlocked? How shameful.” The elf muttered, carefully stepping through the door. 

Maps covered the walls, the desks covered in anything relating to grand relics. Journals, newspapers, books, Taako couldn’t figure out what came from what. What caught his attention more than the desk was the large tank in the corner. He knew it existed but he couldn’t see through it. His eyes just didn’t want to see what was in it. The elf moved closer, but the haze and fuzz got worse. But worse it just felt so damn familiar! 

It hit him like a sack of bricks. The name, The portrait, and now the tank. All had the Voidfish’s static around it. Taako picked up an empty vial off the desk, looking at the tank. 

“I don’t know if I should hope to be right or wrong at this rate.” He muttered, scooping some of the fuzzy liquid out of the tank. He stared at it for a while, rather hesitant to drink it. For the truth, He reminded himself and chugged it down. 

An immense pressure began to press down onto his brain, a splitting headache beginning to form. Then, Taako remembered. He remembered everything, The IPRE, Lucretia, Barry, Davenport, His own companions, The Hunger, And… oh god, Lup. His vision began to waiver as a searing pain hit his mind. He may have screamed, but in that moment, He was deaf to everything and yet he could hear everything at once. The pressure soon became too much for him as he fell to the floor, crumpled into a heap. 

Taako woke up in the bureau infirmary. His head pounded and ached, and he couldn’t quite figure out where exactly he was at. His vision cleared with time and found Merle and Magnus at his side. They were both asleep, Magnus leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, Merle had his arms resting under him beside Taako on the bed. Taako’s… no Lup’s umbrella sat beside the chair next to the sleeping dwarf. 

They don’t remember anything, he reminded himself. He had to get out of here. He had to find Barry, had to confront Lucretia, had to- 

He hissed in pain as his head pulsed once more. 

“Huh..?”  
Taako’s head whipped around to the source of the voice. 

Magnus lifted his head, a hazy look in his eyes. The human’s eyes snapped wide as soon as he saw Taako awake. 

“Taako! Oh thank Pan you’re awake!” He reached a hand over the elf and shook Merle awake. 

Merle shifted his head up, groaning a bit. He looked around a bit and blinked in disbelief. Taako looked back and forth at them, rather confused. 

“What happened?! Lucretia said she found you in her office passed out, what were you doing in there?” Magnus demanded. 

Taako’s heart dropped. He gave a hesitant smile to his compatriots before hissing in pain as a sharp pulse ran through his head. 

“You should rest, You were out for two weeks at least.” Merle said, gently helping Taako lay down. 

Taako fought against the cleric. “Wait, Two weeks?! Are you-” 

_The hunger-Barry-Lup-Magnus-Merle- **THE HUNGER-**_

With his thoughts racing and his head pulsing, the elf threw off the covers he was under and rolled over to the side of the bed. He placed his feet firmly on the floor and stood up, but fell back down as his head began to quickly race into a sharp pain once again. Magnus placed a hand on his shoulder, a worried look on his face. 

“Taako, Rest for a little longer, I’ll go get the doc.” Magnus said before turning to Merle. 

“Keep an eye on him okay?” Magnus gave a thumbs up to the cleric before continuing out the door. 

Merle gave a worried nod and watched Magnus leave. Taako moved back into the bed, albeit very unhappy. It wasn’t even five minutes before Taako was checked out and okayed to leave. Magnus and Merle sighed a breath of relief, while Taako frowned. 

“I’m glad to see you’re okay, Taako.” The group looked up at the door to see Lucretia standing there. She had a worried, grim smile on her face as she walked forward. Taako got up from where he was sitting, meeting the director halfway. He had a less than pleased look on his face. 

“Boys, May I talk to Taako alone please?” She asked, turning to Merle and Magnus. 

Merle crossed his arms in protest, but Magnus urged him to come with him. The two left hesitantly as Lucretia closed the door. The two remained in a very familiar silence until Taako broke it. He had so much to say to her, but his thoughts weren’t sorted just yet. Only one word was clear enough for him to ask. 

“Why?” He barely whispered 

Lucretia sighed. 

“I assume you found the second voidfish?” She asked, Her tone was soft and cautious. 

Taako remained silent. 

“I was worried, I found you on the floor in that room, vial in hand. I thought you’d-” 

“Died? Wouldn’t death be too good a reward for me?” Taako snapped. 

Lucretia looked to the floor, remaining silent for a few solid moments. “I… I’m sorry. For everything.” 

“Yeah? You’re sorry?” A low chuckle came from Taako. 

“Well, guess what Lu, You made us forget everything. Merle and Magnus got off easy, but Davenport… Don’t even get me fucking started on what you did to him. You made me forget. My own. Fucking. _SISTER_. Are you happy now? Are you happy with everything that you did here? Did this help you accomplish anything? And all you have to say is ‘I’m sorry’? ” Taako hissed, rage building in every one of his bones. 

“I HAD to Taako, Believe me. There wasn’t any other way.” Lucretia pleaded. 

Taako grit his teeth with anger, but with a sigh, his eyes fell down to the floor. “I trusted you, Lucretia, we were in this together. ALL of us. All we had was each other… But…” 

The elf fell short, tears beginning to form in his eyes. Every emotion that he could ever possibly have had in this moment flooded his mind. Rage, Frustration, Pain, Agony, Sadness, You name it, Taako was feeling it. 

“Taako…” Lucretia stepped forward and reached a hand out. Taako stepped back as much as he could, nearly slapping the hand back. 

“No. I’m done. I’m donezo, I’m gone. You fucked up this time.” He glared right into Lucretia’s eyes, Rage and pain building back up. 

He should have been angrier, Should have been boiling with rage. Why was he so calm?? Too many emotions kept flowing through him, It was hard to keep track of it all. 

“Please. Don’t. Magnus, Merle, They need you. I need you.” Lucretia pleaded. 

“I can’t stay here knowing Lup is out there. I need her… Dead or alive. There’s a chance she’s out there, In her lich form. We have time to stop this.” Taako’s glare softened. “I can’t stay here knowing they don’t know anything. I can’t sit there and helplessly play along to this stupid game! It’s coming, And I know what you’re trying to do.” 

Lucretia’s eyes dropped, she clenched her fists. “Don’t try to stop me Taako. We’ve worked too hard.” 

“I don’t intend to get in your way, Fully at least.” 

Lucretia sighed, Her eyes swimming back and forth. She opened her mouth multiple times, attempting to say something that would convince Taako to reconsider. She finally spoke after a few moments. 

“... You won’t be recognized as a bureau member after this, if you leave. I cannot let you have communication with anyone. That means Magnus, Merle, Angus. Everyone.” Her tone was flat and cold, but her face showed defeat. 

“I don’t care if I’m in your stupid middle school club or whatever sort of chucklefuckery this was supposed to be. Just... promise me you won’t do anything hasty until I find Lup. If we have a chance to fight, We have to take it.” Taako began to move past Lucretia. 

A thought quickly popped into his mind, Realizing he was a few items short than when he had entered the office. 

He swung Lup’s umbrella onto his arm, turning to look back to the director. “Oh yeah, You know where my stuff is?” 

“Your room, on your bed.” 

“Thanks, Lu.” 

Taako moved to the door, Placing a hand on the smooth surface. He stopped in his tracks as Lucretia began to speak. 

“Taako, If the Hunger comes and you haven’t found her, All bets are off, You know that?” 

Taako turned his head to look to the Director and smirked. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

“Just... wanted to give you fair warning.” 

The elf pulled the door back and walked through. The next room over was a corridor that led to a multitude of other rooms. He walked down the quiet corridor, his boots clicking on the shiny floor. THe room opened up to a reception/waiting area. He saw his companions waiting in the room, their faces filled with relief and delight upon seeing the elf. They stood up suddenly and rushed to him. Magnus hooked an arm around Taako, smiling. Merle simply pats the wizard on the back. 

“Honestly, we thought we lost you there for a second,” Merle said, laughing a little. 

Taako scoffed. “You know it’ll take more than that to off me, C’mon. It’s me, Taako.” 

The elf swung himself out from under Magnus’ arm, giving them a melancholy smile. His mind wandered from the conversation, thinking about the old times they had together in the worlds they visited. Would... Could they get back to that point? His mind snapped back as he felt someone touch his shoulder. Magnus had been asking something. 

“What time is it anyway?" 

Ah, Forget it, Let’s go see Avi and get something good to drink.” Merle answered. 

The trio exited the medical wing of the moon, thoughts of anxiety, relief, and pain floating in their heads.


End file.
